Current New Japan

[Ma Stump Puller]

If it's like prior All Together shows, expect at best a six-man tag that goes 20/25 mins. 

 

 

[El-P]

Some really good stuff on the NJPW show from Washington. I'll let you guess what is what...

In others news though, with David Finlay having his own Rebel Club inside the Bullet Club, they've reached the nWo spilt era, except both are nWo Black & White under Stevie Ray.

[MLB]

7 minutes ago, El-P said:

Some really good stuff on the NJPW show from Washington. I'll let you guess what is what...

In others news though, with David Finlay having his own Rebel Club inside the Bullet Club, they've reached the nWo spilt era, except both are nWo Black & White under Stevie Ray.

Finlay is outside of the BC leader mold, that is true.  That stable has been remarkably successful in making over gaijins I think some fans perceived as too pretty.  Giving them a leather jacket and a more edgy look (AJ, Kenny, Cody, Finn, Cole, YB, Jay) did wonders for all those guys.

[El-P]

Clark Connors getting in the BC is pretty decent, and hopefully he loses those diapers looking tights, but Dave Finlay is nowhere near close any of the former BC leader, neither as a worker neither as a character neither as a potential main event guy.

And yeah, Despi vs Ishii was awesome, how shocking. I have no idea how Ishii still goes like this. KENTA vs Edwards was also the best KENTA match in eons, which, as an IMPACT followers is not exactly a surprise, Eddie is just that good and there was a cool little dynamic as they crossed before in Japan when Eddie was a young boy. The three-way main event was great too, the brunt of the match carried by MCMG vs Aussie Open with Okada being lots of fun in this context too. There's this spot where he kicks Davies head from behind, once, not sold, then twice, and Davies retaliates by blasting the fuck out of Okada with a chop, masterfully sold. Tanahashi looks rough though. But he's still Tana, so he makes up for it. Maybe he'll end up like Mutoh, retiring at 62. Aussie winning, so there are your new belt collectors (there was an FTR chant during the post-match promo) and them probably having a tag title match with Tana & Okada at Dontaku now is quite the sign NJPW is going full bore with them, which is deserved. They clearly are the best tag team in the world right now.

Undercard had some fun stuff like the multi-men opener and ZSJ vs Tom Lawlor. And SANADA looks... kinda... not like the World Champ caliber guy he should be. Yeah, I'll give it time, but it's obvious when he's facing Naito and Hiromu than he's just not from the same cloth.

[Dav'oh]

As resident PWOet Lariat, I should write a Dontaku Haiku but it's a pretty underwhelming card. Usual suspects in the early multi-men, then KENTA vs Hikuleo (don't mind KENTA but pass), Sabre vs Cobb (BINGO! I'm all about this shit), I wish the sorta dreamteam of Okada/Tana/Ishii had someone better than Narita, Despy and Suzuki, Tonga vs Finlay will be solid but charisma-less, and SANADA/Hiromu is a foregone conclusion.

I'll have it on in the background (7pm, here), but I won't be offering my usual, insightful, in-depth analysis. Or haikus.

[Dav'oh]

Which wrestlers, industry-wide, are/were better than their (actual) dads?

viz a viz Tama vs Finlay; I might be able to make a case for Tama, not for Finlay. 

Mox returns at Dominion, teaming with Shota and (X) vs Ishii, Okada, Tana.

[MoS]

Roman is better than Sika. Rock?

[Dav'oh]

It's like for every Curt Hennig there's three Joe Hennigs. My cursory headcheck reckons it's more miss than hit.

And, "oh, Hiromu!" Running flat-back bumps on the concrete are not your friend, my friend.

[NotJayTabb]

There's definitely a few - Dustin Rhodes, Randy Orton, the Usos - but I guess it's often the case that it's the offspring of very good wrestlers who seem to go into wrestling, and that can be a hard shadow to break free of. No matter how well Charlotte does, it's going to be hard to surpass her father's achievements. 

[NintendoLogic]

There are likely boatloads of luchadores who would qualify. El Hijo del Santo is an obvious example, at least by reputation.

[SAMS]

What Japanese wrestlers would qualify for this? I'm sure there's a few but I'm drawing a blank off the top of my head

[NintendoLogic]

Shibata is the only one I can think of. One of the great things about puro is that it isn't infested with nepo babies. 

[MLB]

The Funks. I don't think any of the Von Erich boys surpassed Fritz individually but perhaps you could argue them collectively. Randy Savage. Bret Hart. Bray Wyatt. Jeff Jarrett. Haven't seen enough Mike Dibiase to make a case with Ted. Vince Jr. Not sure about Barry Windham and Blackjack Mulligan. 

[NotJayTabb]

I'd say Bray is at the same levels of bad as his father, just a different type of bad. I'd accept Bo Dallas as an answer though.

[Mr JMML]

Villano III is better than Ray Mendoza and the same could be said about Villano IV and Villano V.

[Graham Crackers]

Do we have the Ray Mendoza footage to justify that assertion or is that based on reputation? Only Mendoza match I've seen is the great Fujinami one.

[Phil Schneider]

I am pretty sure we only have that one Mendoza match on tape, and he is pretty old and also awesome. V3 is an all-timer of a wrestler, but Mendoza had a pretty titanic rep, so not sure we can say that. Also, even though I am a legendary Dustin fan, I would have a hard time definitively putting him ahead of Dusty.  

[Frankensteiner]

On 5/3/2023 at 1:43 PM, MLB said:

The Funks. I don't think any of the Von Erich boys surpassed Fritz individually but perhaps you could argue them collectively. Randy Savage. Bret Hart. Bray Wyatt. Jeff Jarrett. Haven't seen enough Mike Dibiase to make a case with Ted. Vince Jr. Not sure about Barry Windham and Blackjack Mulligan. 

You'd probably have to add Lanny and Owen too.

Is there any Warren Bockwinkel footage? Going by rep, Nick would probably be a contender for that list too.

[Mr JMML]

 

 

 There's some Ray Mendoza matches that we have from Mexico.

[MLB]

1 hour ago, Frankensteiner said:

You'd probably have to add Lanny and Owen too.

Is there any Warren Bockwinkel footage? Going by rep, Nick would probably be a contender for that list too.

Lanny and Owen definitely crossed my mind but I didn't have confidence in that judgement. Stu was a bigger attraction than Owen. Haven't seen much Angelo Poffo but he seems close to Lanny in terms of status on the cards. 

A couple others I thought of recently are Jake Roberts and Saraya.

[NintendoLogic]

2 minutes ago, Mr JMML said:

An obvious one: Rey Mysterio Jr is definitely better than his father. They worked in the first year of AAA's existence.

Did Rey's father ever wrestle? Rey Misterio Sr. is his uncle.

[Mr JMML]

Sorry, it was a typo.

[strobogo]

On 5/3/2023 at 11:41 AM, NintendoLogic said:

Shibata is the only one I can think of. One of the great things about puro is that it isn't infested with nepo babies. 

A lot of the GOATs in pro wrestling are nepo babies, though.

 

In regards to Angelo Poffo, he's definitely on the Lanny side, and not even as good as Lanny was, who himself was multitudes below Randy. There's a bunch of NWA Chicago matches of his online and dude is just bleh as hell. You'd never believe that guy had one of the most charismatic sons of all time.

[RingoPlaysDrums]

BOSJ Day 1 was good fun. Some enjoyable matches that didn't outstay their welcome. Good set up for El Desperado's run with the leg injury. Capped off by an excellent match between Hiromu and Speedball in the main event. All in front of an engaged Korakuen crowd. I tried a few New Japan tournaments during the clapping only era and they were never able to keep my interest. This one may be different.

[Timbo Slice]

Really hope Speedball gets some tours off this. Him going over Hiromu is a big deal.